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Guys, I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the following: Old wisdom says that gold can be found where it has been found before by others. Following this "rule", I have mostly been hunting in areas that are well known for their gold deposits and that have been heavily mined by others. This has worked well for me and I have found decent gold over the years (although I always could use some more...;). However, lately I am more and more playing with the thought to explore areas where there are no known gold deposits recorded. Here in California there are many areas that are not explored by others that have the potential for gold. I am trying to locate these areas by for instance comparing the geological maps with those maps of known deposits. By inspecting these maps I sometimes see geological formations on public land that are virtually identical to those where gold mines are located, but they have never been mined or claimed before. This happens more often in desert areas where there is a lack of water and perhaps therefore the old timers where not all over it. I am sure this is not typical for California and the same potential for "undiscovered" bonanzas exist all over the world. So, what do you guys think about such adventurous new places? I would hate to be skunked every day for weeks and months while exploring potential new areas, but I can't help the thought that it is nearly impossible for the old timers to have caught every single gold bearing area.

I'm relatively new to metal detecting tailings, my experience is more with bedrock. I've found several spots close by that are old historical mining sites. My problem is I don't know what to look for, do you go to the big cobbles or smaller rocks? I've attached a few pictures hopefully they make sense. Thank you in advance.

I am after some advice, I purchased a GPZ 7000 late yesterday and of course I am keen to take it out today for a test drive. I am pretty clueless with this machine, although I've watched JW use it many times I've not paid any attention to how he runs it or what he does with it as I never thought I'd be buying one. I think his settings may not be ideal for me yet anyway as he runs it crazy hot, being a beginner I'd probably need more tame stable settings 🙂 JW is unable to be contacted this weekend, Queenstown's big music festival of the year which JW always attends going on for the weekend so he's off at that so I can't get any advice off him for my mission today. I was hoping GPZ users here would be able to give me some advice on what to do. I don't have time to properly read the manual today as I've got a big drive to get to a gold spot, I was thinking I'd just do a quick start and get going but if there is something obvious I should be doing to use it in mild soils please let me know. If the default settings are more suitable for tough soils I'd be wasting my time. I'll have to start reading the manual tonight after I've used it today 🙂 I've ordered a 10" and 12" X-coil for it which I believe to be the best two coils for use in NZ with JW's results. I'm also going to use the Chet method of a longer style adapter patch cable for it, I like the idea of his method and it also makes changing coils easier which I like the idea of. Here's my new toy. Any help greatly appreciated.

Hi all, Does anyone know anything about this little beauty? A mate of mine bought it brand new a long time ago and found it when cleaning out the shed.

So the actual detector’s battery has gotten some attention here. Btw I still don’t see battery listed yet on parts list at Minelab.com. Anyway thinking long term here what about changing batteries in the wireless WM 08 module.

It has come to my attention when using my Apple iPad mini (with latest update btw) accessing manufacturer’s main site I cannot access support pages on site. A work around for folks is to do a google search. For example doing google search for Simplex+ manual one will see a good site that will get them to their destination for access to needed data. It has been reported the same thing happens with use of android cell phone. I have put a thread together elsewhere here in order to notify marketing rep Dilek of this issue. http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/discussions/read.php?2,172246

Hi Forum Not sure if this is the right place for this topic. I’m heading out Arizona way for some gold detecting, flown in from South Africa so I need some guidance.Im looking for a good claims club and BLM land to detect on. I’m visiting Wickenburg area as a starting point. Roadrunners has been suggested by a few friends. BLM land also important and options.If any one can shed some light this would be great.Off the beaten track no worries Thanks and look forward to any help offered

Which do you think will hit deeper on wet sand? I'd prefer a TDIBH over a DF but I'm budget limited.

Gday guys, I have the opportunity of buying a used Deus for a little less than a new ORX. I have been mulling over this for weeks, does anyone have any advice. I really only want an XP to be able to put it into a backpack, trek into the bush and use it for relic hunting, and a little gold here and there.The warranty factor is something that is swaying me towards the new ORX machine...but I know the Deus has many more features and options. I already have a Equinox 800 for beaches, coins and relic's but I am just wanting something easier for a few locations where I want to travel in stealth wise. So pretty much the question I am asking what would you do, Buy a S/Hand Xp Deus or Buy a new Xp ORX with the desired coil (round hf coil) and Warranty. cheers guys.

I mostly hunt for gold in the winter in Arizona and could probably use another detector for that. In the summer months I have been wanting to hunt for treasures around my old farm house back in Michigan. I have tried in the past but, man there is a lot of trash! My monster 1000 loves Arizona but not Michigan or not a least around my house. I swear it was a trash dump at one time. Same with my SDC 2300. I am looking for a machine that might do both well, gold and treasures, if there is a detector like that. I have consider the Equinox and also the XP ORX but I might be missing something here. Maybe there are better/more to consider than just those two. Am I on track here or should I steer myself in another direction.

I am new to running the EQ800 and following the manual to the advanced settings, it says to navigate to the recovery speed menu, then press and hold the settings button for the advanced settings bar to show up underneath the recovery speed icon. I do all that and no bar shows up, just a grunt. Other menu items come up with the bar underneath. Everything I read says there are advanced settings available, but I am not finding them. Am I missing something? I am running the most recent version of 2.0 and rolled back to 1.75 and it didn't seem to work there either. Am I doing something wrong?

Hi everybody, I'm a european prospector. I use shovel. sluice, pan, pry bars and crevice tools in creeks in Europe and Alaska. Till now, I had a Whites GMT VLF detector, to check my spots after I worked them, i.e. to check if I missed some gold. I rarely go prospecting with a detector on large areas, like the aussie or US pros. Now I broke my GMT (after 10 years). I have three options for replacement: - a new Whites GMT, i.e. staying with VLF - SDC 2300 - GPZ 7000 (I could buy a used one from a friend) It seems to me, the GMT and SDC are better for my application, as they have small coils and are light etc. When I check my spots in the creeks, its often narrow between rocks etc. and I'm not able to make large sweeps with the coil. But the GPZ obviously is far better in depth. My question: Is the GPZ also practical for detecting in creeks between rocks etc, as I described above? Or is it only practical to detect large areas like the aussie or US pros? Many thanks in advance for your appreciated advice! Andreas

Hi, I work for a district water company and we frequently have to turn the water service on and off at a home or business. This is an area where it gets fairly cold in winter so the cut-off valve is buried in the ground and access to it is just down through a small tube with a cap about the size of a half dollar coin. We have a tool that we put down the tube to turn the valve. Often/Usually the caps that should be at ground level get buried under an inch or more of dirt or grass or snow or whatever is in the area and can cover them. We use a metal detector to help find them which sometimes works very well and other times not so well. I'm wondering if there is something we can put on the caps or bury beside the tube to make it a lot easier for the detector to pick it up and maybe distinguish between what we put there and other random junk that happens to be lying around in the area. Or is there a way to get more specific than that like some type of detector that will or can be set to only pick up a particular substance we could put in place that's not likely there is other similar material just lying around the area...something not expensive like gold. I may not have explained what we're trying to work out very well but hopefully you people get the idea and may have some suggestions on how to improve our situation. Thank you for any help with this!!! David

Hello Detector Prospector forum! I've been inactive in detecting for quite some time and am now getting back at it. I've used this forum in the past and received great advice so I'm back for more. I'd like to detect the national forest for gold particularly in the rivers and areas of exposed bedrock. I currently have an AT Pro with multiple coils (among other machines but none are dedicated gold detectors). I'm thinking of using the 5x8 and sniper coil. I don't foresee spending a great deal of my time gold detecting, particularly due to the distance I would have to travel and lower chance of success as compared to coin detecting. So, given this situation, my question is this - do you think I would be much better served by buying a dedicated gold machine? I was thinking the AT Gold due to river detecting (waterproof). But would the AT Pro do "almost" as well on gold? Loaded question, I know. How much difference does 3 kHz make in detecting small gold? I'm going to do a little testing on small lead fragments to get an idea as to how small of a nugget the Pro will pick up. Thanks in advance!

Can anyone recommends any really great gold hunting adventures in the USA? Maybe something like a week guided tour.

I didn't know where else to put this but I thought I would try here but if it needs to be moved Steve go for it. A little background, I am in no way affiliated with this company other than I bought one of these to help relieve my elbow pain. In addition to detecting I coach golf, do a lot of push-ups/pull-ups in my fitness routine and drag my scoop behind me when on the beach. My elbows always used to hurt and there were times I chose not to detect as my tendinitis was just to painful. I found armaid through a fitness friend and tried it out and bingo, it has helped to alleviate the pain I'd get from swinging my detector or anything else physical using my arms. As we age things don't quite work as they used to and pain shows up more often in our daily lives. When I started to see relief I thought this was too good not to share with the forum at DP as I'm sure many others suffer from elbow tendinitis as well as painful wrists and fingers so here is the website. www.armaid.com They have a bunch of videos that show you how to use it so it's pretty easy to get started. Again I have zero interest in the company and my only reason for sharing it here is that it might be able to help someone eliminate or lessen their arm pain so they can detect more. I tried to attach a picture but I ran into problems so I apologize for that.

I am chasing some advice. I am away from home in my Caravan. I forgot to bring my Qed with me and only have my Nox and 11 inch coil. I tried to detect the lakes beach at this spot and the entire beach is - 9 - 8 everywhere. Sometimes also 13. I've got them blocked out but I seem to really lack depth. I am in park 1. Are there any recommendations people can give to try tackle this with the Nox or is it PI only territory. I've found a gold ear ring and $3 in coins so far but all very shallow. I'm not sure if it's hot rocks or black sand but I suspect both. My wife insists she found a gold flake while digging in the lake sand playing with my daughter but she lost it before I saw it Here are photos of what I'm dealing with Possible hot rocks Looks like black sand in there

I'll be in the Dickinson area for a few days (Dec. 24-28) and am looking for a place to detect (coins, relics, jewelry). Anyone have any ideas or connections to older places? I did not take my beach scoop, so inland areas would be best. Thanks!

I recently tried Neil Jones's beach to land program - exactly as he advises. I don't know if I'm the problem or something else, but I was sorely disappointed, especially since I've read so many positive comments about it. I was on an iron infested colonial site with lots of EMI via livestock fencing. I was using the 6" coil. I hit 2 tombac buttons in factory Park 1. Switching to the custom program, the best I could get was broken signal that I would not have normally dug. Suggestions? Thoughts?

Hello, guys. Where i can buy DDX coils for GPX, other sizes than 25 ddx?

I am getting a GPX5000 and have a new problem to solve, what is the best way to transport it when flying? Thanks in advance for your advice! Cheers

Has anyone else been harassed whilst prospecting? Whilst trying my luck at my local beach this morning I was stopped by a tourist and his family wanting to know if I’d found anything.. after I told him ‘no luck yet’ he called me ‘a bloody scab’.. I was a bit surprised at his reaction and asked him why he thought so.. instead of answering he demanded to know what I did with all the gold rings I found.. I told him I’ve never found a gold ring in my life, only coins and a shitload of beer bottle tops.. it was only when he realised I live on the island that he backed off, leaving me a bit perturbed.. Has anyone else had a similar experience? This has also left me to wonder what I really would do if I found someone’s cherished jewellery.. I guess that I’d first try to find its owner.. maybe through the cops (lost property)? Or is ‘Finders Keepers’ the first rule of the game?

Fancy an Equinox 800 for $200 USD? Look no further, you can now buy a proper Chinese version! It looks like they've now made Fake Gold Monsters too, Mine Lab ones ?, it really never ends does it, now people even have to be careful buying a trusty GM1000 ? And the Mine Lab SDC ? I guess Mine lab is safe to use but Minelab isn't. And to top it off they sell a detector more expensive than the GPZ! The high performance Titan Ger 1000! $14,500 USD!!! I think the lesson to be learnt from this is to buy from Authorized Dealers, and if buying second hand, try verify it's authenticity with original receipts or any way you can. ?

How many of you have a non-human prospecting or detecting buddy? Dog, cat, burro, reconnaissance bird... whatever. Post a pic and tell us about them. Here is a chance to brag about our best friends!